This Food is Coyrighted!


So my weekend thing (if not at the beach or otherwise engaged in play) is to clean out my DVR - Anthony Bourdain and No Reservations is a fave. Rock and Roll bad boy chef with a snarky potty mouth is to die for!
I mean....c'mon...Tony = HOT! The foodie buddha said it best:
"I have a soft spot for any television show that comes with an amended warning label. Moreover, if the show happens to espouse the intrinsic benefits of glutonistic hedonism, I’d say that show is a dream come true. Such is the case with No Reservations, that Travel channel icon of television programs. Hosted by none other than the heavily inked Tony Bourdain, No Reservations allows the viewer at least 60-minutes of food porn at its best. His language is crass, his vernacular is spectacular, and the entertainment level is high. Get on this and get on it now."
His recent show was about being Obsessed. And because i'm ADD and i watch TV with a laptop it led me to Google some of the people being covered such as the militant food bloggers who founded eGullet, Off the Grill, and Opinionated About Dining. Then i stumbled upon a Food & Wine article how Steve Shaw from eGullet.com proposes copyrighting recipes as a response to copycat chefs plagarizing recipes from other top chefs.

OK....OMG WTF!***???? Copyrighted FOOD!!?

Says Pete Wells of Food & Wine: "When Steven Shaw, eGullet’s cofounder, first weighed in on the site’s discussions, he felt the best way to deal with food forgery was through public shaming: Put the evidence out there and let copycats feel the heat. After a few days or so, though, he had a change of heart. Shaw, a reformed lawyer, learned in law school that recipes can’t be copyrighted. "Then one day I was sitting there," he says, "and I thought, Why not? It doesn’t make any sense. The assumption is that a list of ingredients is like a formula, as opposed to literature or art or craft. But I think serious recipes really are a form of literary craftsmanship. You can copyright the world’s worst photograph, but you can’t copyright a recipe, or its expression as food? That’s absurd!"

Interesting thought. How could this happen? How in the world would you accomplish this? Pete Wells continues:

"Shaw told me he hoped to convene a summit meeting with some of the smartest people in the food world to hammer out a workable model for copyrighting food. First, he’d propose changing the copyright code, possibly by making cuisine a subdivision of the existing category for sculpture or acknowledging recipes as a form of literary expression. For enforcement, Shaw leans toward creating a system like ASCAP, an association that collects composers’ royalties for public performances of songs—on the radio, in nightclubs and so on."
"Copyrighting recipes may be the most radical idea to hit the food world since the invention of the menu."
SO, Librarians....Writers....we're not the only one to think of copyright and intellectual property!

Read the whole Food & Wine article, New Era of the Recipe Burglar and then read Meg Hourihan of megnut.com and her response to the controversy.

Oh and my steamed lobster & shrimp dinner i made at the beach pictured above? it's copyrighted!...but prolly by Old Bay!


But what do you think Librarians? Can you copyright a recipe?

**OMG WTF=Oh my Goodness, Where's the Fire! That's my story and i'm sticking to it!

photo credits: food shots from a previous blog post from Capt Red, No Reservations banner from the Travel Channel, Tony's pic From the Gut,
Steve Shaw pic from Serious NY Eats.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Makerspace for Little or Nothing

Image
Makerspace for Little or Nothing You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to start a Makerspace area. You don't have to have a designated room or rip out bookcases. You can even have a Makerspace on a cart! When we have testing in our Library, I put all our Makerspace stuff on an AV cart and roll it into our server room.  This post evolved from a previous post called Makerspace Starter Kit Updated where I had some of these idea, but I felt that it deserved it's own expanded post. You can take baby steps into the Maker Movement.  I've been saying that for 7 years or so....long before I blogged about it, I tried it out. Yeah, sometimes I try things on the sly to see if they are blogworthy for you! Now....having said that..... WARNING: Controversial Opinion Ahead.  I'm not 100% sold, even after 7 years of talking about the Maker Movement, that it's something that's here to stay and not just a fad. Even though I've (without knowing it!)...
Keep reading

Makerspace Starter Kit Updated

Image
Three years ago I shared my Makerspace Starter Kit with you or what I was buying to boost our Makerspace area using four empty Library study carrels that no longer held desktop Macs.  That post has consistently been one of the most viewed posts every week for years and years - with more than 83 THOUSAND views, gee whiz! (Crazy, right?) So, I thought maybe it was time to update it!*  Since then, I've had some major Makerspace successes and a couple dismal (and expensive) Makerspace failures!  So, here's the latest for ya'll with the good, the bad, and the bloody awful! Our MHMS Makerspace How it works: Kids can come in before the 1st period late bell rings, during lunch, or when they've finished their work in class to explore, craft, and create in the Library Media Center. It's not a "class" or an organized offering. It's a free form optional offering of constructivist learning and creativity! It's not as big as some and it hasn't tak...
Keep reading

Curating the Happy for Your Future Self

Image
Teacher Tip #112 Teacher Self-Care:  Create a Happy Folder In my School Library Media office desk I had a manilla folder where I carefully tucked all the hand written notes from kiddos & parents to read on a rainy day. I also SHAMELESSLY would first tape them to my office door (let the other teachers internally writhe with envy!)  Nah, really just to keep me motivated and also show the kiddos I appreciated their heartfelt little notes!  But.....before I tucked it away tenderly or taped it to my door, I took a picture of it and uploaded it to Flickr. A digital Happy Folder that pays back dividends of warm fuzzies and motivations for your future self.  Because, let's not kid ourselves, being an educator right now is HARD.  Start this habit NOW.  Don't be like me and wait 10 or 15 years. OK, some of that was because cell phones and digital cameras weren't as handy and as ubiquitous back then. But do your future self a favor, there will be days w...
Keep reading